Sharing Circle Online Sessions

This October, we launched a series of online Sharing Circle sessions.

These sessions are open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working with their languages, learning their languages, looking for professional development opportunities or advice, or wanting to expand their networks with others working with language across the country.

Throughout the series, we would love people to join us for over an afternoon tea cuppa or lunch (depending on your time zone) to have a yarn, meet some new people, and share or discuss anything related to language work!

Sessions will run monthly on Thursdays.

First Session: 14th October

On Thursday 14th October, we had our first session. We had a great group that joined in for the yarn.

The circle was made up of people that are just starting out with their language learning/work, and people that have been working in language for years. It was amazing meeting some new people and to share what Living Languages does.

Everyone shared a bit about themselves, the work they are doing, their interests in language and culture, as well as exchanging ideas. We were also able to connect up people with others to provide added support for mob on their language journey. It was a deadly start to the Sharing Circle series. Thank you to everyone that joined in.

Sharing Circle sessions will run once a month. Keep an eye out for when we advertise the next session and what that yarn will be about!

Second Session: 25th November

Tips and advice for language learners

Our second Sharing Circle took place on Thursday 25th November. It was the last Sharing Circle for 2021, and it was lovely to see some familiar faces and to meet some new people. These sessions are all about respectfully sharing the language and culture yarn through advice, support, encouragement, motivation and making connections.

Our yarn for November focused on ‘Tips & Advice’ for learning and talking language. These were mainly practical everyday tips to support and reinforce learning. Tips like how to ‘utilise your lingo time’ or ‘little things you can do at home to help you keep speaking lingo’. For instance, a really handy ‘time utilising’ tip is to practice speaking lingo, listening to recordings of lingo, or playing games in lingo while travelling in your car, especially on those longer trips when there is lots of spare time. We also talked about the 20 x 20 rule which says you have to say a word twenty times in twenty different contexts to help remember that word. That’s something to think about, or even better to try and put into practice!

Thanks to everyone that joined us for the Sharing Circle this year and we are really looking forward to an exciting 2022. Hope to see you all again in February next year!